Cucumbers with Cream and Mint + Spring Minestrone with Peas and Asparagus

Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food; Day 14; Recipe 19

This dish reminds me somewhat of the cucumber salads my mother made, except her's centered on mayonnaise. Alice Waters calls for cucumbers sliced, heavy cream, olive oil, lemon, mint, and salt & pepper. I was wary about the use of heavy cream but it just covers the cucumber and with the olive oil it's a pretty thin layer. The sauce tastes not unlike an approximation of a Greek salad. Through trial and error I found that the more salt and especially pepper the better the dish became. Anyway, I thought this dish a moderate success and am looking forward to leftovers tomorrow. Lisa thought it fine, but perhaps unspecial.  Regrettably that is how she and I have felt about most of these last two weeks.

Alice Waters: The Art of Simple Food; Day 14; Recipe 20

We were hoping that this soup would end the Art of Simple Food series on a high note but predictably it was not to be. The ingredients: cannellini beans, fresh peas, asparagus, spinach, leeks, fennel, onion, garlic scapes, and finished with salt, olive oil and parmesan. Lisa was caught unaware, which is rare, but after she had cooked some of the vegetables she found out that the beans were supposed to be boiled ahead of time. According to her, this was not made clear in the recipe. So while the beans were on the stove we went out to play catch in the park. How did it taste? The good: the vegetables came together well and were tasty, especially, from my perspective, the spinach and asparagus. The bad: the beans were meant to provide a flavored broth but that didn't happen and because Waters does not call for stock, but water, I found the base to be woefully thin -- which tends to be a problem across recipes that call for water as a base. Would I want this soup again? Not this way, but I won't mind eating it again for lunch tomorrow. If you asked Lisa what she thought her appraisal would be a fraction more positive than mine.